2010:The Year We Make Contact(1984) spacesuits

[JT Perfecthair]

I saw this in a "70mm Dolby" theater back in the day, I still remember the bit where Discovery's engines fill the screen and the Kaboom when they started up.

I like the movie as it is. I would have preferred they kept the cold war problems on Earth instead of assuming the astronauts would care about such things at Jupiter. I feel an opportunity was lost to show each side finding such concerns foolish in light of what they are discovering.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Maybe he's got it lined up for the 50th anniversary?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Fun fact: The blue suit from 2001/2010* later shows up in the B5 "War Without End" two-parter. Also the B5 Omega destroyers are based on the Leonov from 2010.

* When we see the suit in 2010, it has no helmet, apparently because Hyams and co. thought that Dave used the blue helmet when trying to get back into the Discovery in the original film. But Dave is actually wearing a GREEN helmet (the green suit is stowed in the emergency airlock).

 

[BillJ]

I liked 2010 better than 2001 as well.

I think 2010 is the easier film to connect with because it is done in a more traditional film format.

Both are stand out films though.

 

[trevanian]

Maybe he's got it lined up for the 50th anniversary?

Naah, he's going in another direction, trying to get a film made around the Apollo-era Mattel toy line MAJOR MATT MASON. Storyline sounds like Clarke's A FALL OF MOONDUST, just a survival disaster thing on the moon, but I guess the realization will prove whether it is worthwhile or not (I always thought Hanks should do a future version of FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON, showing the next century in space, using all those unused stories that Kubrick originally bought for 2001, and call it HOW THE SOLAR SYSTEM WAS WON -- which was the in-joke title for the film early on.)

 

[Darth_Daver]

I preferred 2010 over 2001... *backs quietly out*

Stay here, I preferred 2010 as well. It's one of my favorite scifi films.

My thoughts as well...

 

[Blip]

Oh, I'm still here... The cloak is glitching again.

 

[Non Sync]

Now, you know what book should never be filmed in this series? 3001. Ugh.

I enjoyed 3001 as it showed an updated view of the future as foreseen by Clarke. The storyline with Bowman/HAL could have easily been dropped.

 

[Professor Zoom]

Now, you know what book should never be filmed in this series? 3001. Ugh.

I enjoyed 3001 as it showed an updated view of the future as foreseen by Clarke. The storyline with Bowman/HAL could have easily been dropped.

Yeah, my complaint of the novel isn't the technology that was presented or the world that exists. It's that the story is pretty shit.

 

[scotpens]

. . . As production design goes, I think that the Americans on board the Leonov should have worn the same design colored spacesuits as were used in the original 2001 film instead of the bulking old-fashioned spacesuits that look like Apollo era leftovers. The 2001 colored spacesuits were seen in 2010 on Keir Dullea and hanging in the Discovery I podbay, but not on the American astronauts. The American's wearing retro spacesuits looked wrong.

Well one possible theory is the American suits were more advanced that the Russian suits, and the Americans didn't want the Russians examining them too much. So the American's used Russian suits in 2010.

That was my take on the production design as well. The Leonov spacecraft and and its hardware, including the spacesuits, were Russian-made, with a distinctly different design esthetic -- bulkier and more cluttered as opposed to the clean and sterile look of 2001's spaceship interiors.

Even though I watch 2010 every year or two, it is always with a 'geez, why didn't they do THIS instead?' mindset. They could have paid homage to 2001 by stylistically referencing it ... play the blue danube while seeing US and Soviet ambassadors scuffling on the floor of the UN, perhaps.

"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the War Room!"

In fact, keeping a larger portion earthbound and just throwing the godawful bad novel away would not have been a bad idea, maybe more of an Earth/Space ratio in the DEEP IMPACT vein, where you're in the nuclear buildup crisis most of the time and only on the space mission part as the B-plot.

Actually, I think 2010 could have completely eliminated the Cold-War-heating-up angle which hopelessly dated the film only a few years after it was made (and which wasn't in the novel).

 

[publiusr]

The link here talks about side roads to 2001 from 1968:
http://up-ship.com/blog/?p=22440
https://play.google.com/store/books...SEM&utm_campaign=PLA&pcampaignid=MKTAD0930BO1
http://www.apogeeprime.com/prime/bookpages/9781926837192.html

Discovery didn't have enough tankage to be real--but then I was struck by a thought. Imagine the spine surrounded by helical tank arrays--looking like a DNA strand...

 

[Guy Gardener]

We didn't see the original shape/state of the ship?

Excess fuel tanks could be jettisoned... They don't even have to be disposable so much as directed towards a collection target even if it takes them 300 years to drift there.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I tend to think that the Discovery didn't need a lot of fuel, that after its initial launch, it would really only need to fire its engines again upon reaching its destination.

It's been awhile since I read Clarke's novelization, but I think I recall that the Discovery was only intended for a one-way trip, with the crew to be picked up and brought back home on the presumably more advanced Discovery II (maybe that proposed vessel had large fuel tanks).

 

[publiusr]

The only thing I didn't like is that the pod bay should stay in Vacuum with a small airlock door to it to cut down on lost atmo. Even better--copy what we saw in Andromeda strian and go one better--the Z-1 type suit on the inside wall of the Pod bay:
http://www.fastcodesign.com/1671529/nasa-s-new-space-suit-lets-astronauts-dress-in-seconds

This way, you don't even have to depressurize much if at all.

HAL in a big box in the bay would represent--or should represent--his mainframe core that was left on after his sentient slabs were disconnected. The box helped cool the interface in a vacuum filled room where radiators don't work as well.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Now, you know what book should never be filmed in this series? 3001. Ugh.

I enjoyed 3001 as it showed an updated view of the future as foreseen by Clarke. The storyline with Bowman/HAL could have easily been dropped.

Yeah, my complaint of the novel isn't the technology that was presented or the world that exists. It's that the story is pretty shit.

I didn't mind 3001, except for one thing: the Brain Caps.